College Basketball
Angel Reese’s absence from the LSU women’s basketball team continued on Monday night as the circumstances around it remained murky.
Reese missed her second consecutive game when the Tigers tipped off against Texas Southern University without their All-American forward.
Reese’s situation with LSU has become college basketball’s biggest mystery since it started to develop last week.
LSU won Monday night’s game in convincing fashion 102-47.
The 2023 NCAA Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player was not with the team when they came out for warmups less than an hour ahead of tipoff and Reese was not listed as part of LSU’s starting lineup.
“Angel Reese is still part of the team. She is not in uniform tonight,” LSU coach Kim Mulkey said before the game, according to the SEC Network.
Mulkey reiterated those comments during a postgame news conference while declining to provide any further details in a snippy exchange with reporters.
The women’s basketball coach even dismissed a question if Reese had even been practicing or not.
The LSU and women’s basketball star hasn’t played since last Tuesday when she was benched in the second half against Kent State and didn’t play on Friday against Southeastern Louisiana.
Why she hasn’t been with the defending national champions has remained unclear, despite various rumors that have circulated around social media.
Mulkey has been incredibly tight-lipped about the whole thing, only offering up a vague explanation following Friday’s game.
“You want me to explain why? It’s very obvious Angel was not in uniform,” Mulkey said postgame Friday. “Angel is a part of this basketball team and we hope to see her sooner than later.”
Over the weekend, Reese herself offered up a cryptic response to the whole thing herself.
“Please don’t believe everything you read,” Reese wrote on X.
The post came a day after she had posted in an Instagram story a picture of the LSU court with a cart filled with basketballs.
Reese’s initial benching last week had been described as a coach’s decision by Mulkey.
A report by Outkick stated that Reese had been benched to give her an “attitude adjustment” and over the weekend social media drama erupted over the whole thing between Reese’s mom, Angel Reese Webb, and LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson’s mother, Kia Brooks.
Brooks reportedly made an unsubstantiated remark about Reese’s grades in a reported back and forth on social media with Webb.
Mulkey and LSU will not be able to steer clear of the questions surrounding the ongoing drama with one of college basketball’s most recognizable players.
LSU will travel to the Cayman Islands after Thanksgiving for a pair of games on Friday and Saturday as part of the Cayman Islands Classic.
There is no indication of whether Reese will make the trip and Mulkey would not say if she would go after Monday’s game.
“If I had I wouldn’t tell you,” Mulkey replied when asked if she had decided whether Reese would go on the trip. “You’re not entitled to that information.”
If she doesn’t, it will only fuel the speculation about what has been going on in Baton Rouge.
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